What goes between

So now we get to the part where I totally screw with established canon. Earth-that-was is no more. According to canon, it took a generation to travel from earth to the verse, maybe more. So... If I can ask you to suspend your belief for this chapter, assume that the exodus happened in slow moving ships to save fuel and that technology is at a totally new level by the time we get to Firefly in time, I can actually get away with it.Mal really doesn't want to go though, so for now, just accept it as an idea...

The journey back to Persephone was an uneventful week causing the crew to gather in the dining area more often to play cards or just hang around. Lou stuck to her exercises and got a fair bit of her frustration out on the punching bag.

One lunchtime Lou came from the shower with her hair still damp. She dumped her towel and laundry in her cabin and went to the galley to grab a protein bar for lunch before sitting down to mend a few items of clothing. Kaylee had snagged her overalls on something and torn a hole in a knee and Mal had finally after much nagging allowed her to take a look at a hole in a seam of his brown overcoat."Nobody is gonna take you seriously if you look all shabby," she had told him.Tying an elastic band around her wrist, ready to go in her hair later she grabbed a few patches she thought to use on Kaylee's overalls and headed up. As Lou opened a cupboard to get her protein Inara approached. She turned to see an exited smile on her friend's face."I see now why he always fingers the end of your braid," Inara smiled. "Huh?" Lou asked confused."Your hair. Why do you never wear it down?" Inara asked. "It only gets in the way," Lou said selfconciously reaching to gather her golden waves into a braid."Oh. Please don't," Inara smiled stopping Lou's hand. "Why?" Lou said. "Just a little social experiment," Inara winked.Lou shrugged and went to sit down with her protein bar next to Wash, Kaylee and Jayne who were playing some cardgame."Oh wow. Where have you been hiding that secret?" Kaylee asked."It's just hair," Lou said selfconciously."But it's beautiful! You need to wear it down more often," Kaylee smiled. "See.. I told ya' I know how to pick 'em?" Jayne grinned slapping down some cards on the table."What makes you think you picked me?" Lou smiled at Jayne."Yeah... what exactly do you see in that one?" Wash asked Lou."Oh, he's got his charms... when he wants to," Lou laughed. "Couldn't hear you complaining last night," Jayne grinned, obviously feeling up on himself."Aaand sometimes he's just nasty," Lou said. "Yeah... can't really see the charm thing... I see lots of the nasty tho," Wash said wrinkling his nose.Lou laughed and shot a cheeky wink at the man next to her, getting all butterflied up by the look that crossed his face for a brief second before he settled back into a self satisfied grin. "There's no accounting for it is it? Dunno how he ever ended up with a freeloadin' farmer trollop, but now he's got himself good and stuck," Lou teased studying a fingernail."I never... oh... yeah," he said remembering how he'd been when she first came onboard."Oh, he ain't stuck more than he wants to," Kaylee giggled. "Oh shut up," Jayne mumbled.Lou finished her sorry excuse for a meal and stood up to get on with her mending. She quickly gathered her hair into the usual braid as she went. The captain's coat she had to do by hand so she brought it to the table. The cardgame finished, Jayne laid an arm across the back of Lou's chair and started absentmindedly wrapping her braid around his hand."Told you," Inara smiled making Lou aware that the gentle tugging of her hair not was a new sensation. Mal entered from the bridge and shot Lou a worried look."Don't worry captain. I'm not destroying it. I even found thread that near enough matches," Lou said with a needle between her teeth, waving a spool of brown thread in his direction.Kaylee and Wash exhanged a quick smile and a nod."Captain," Kaylee smiled. "Yeah. What," he said still focused on his overcoat."We have been talking," Wash said. "Yeah, well sometimes it seems you're never gonna stop yabbering," Mal grinned at the pilot."Well this time it's for a good reason," Wash grinned. "Ok. I'm listening," the captain said pouring himself a coffee before sitting down.Wash and Kaylee exhanged another big smile."We have thought about it and realised that we have miscalculated," Wash said."How so," Mal asked. "We loked at old maps and realized we don't have to go the way we thought. There is a shortcut," Wash smiled."And I have spoken to Serenity. She will do it," Kaylee said. "Get to the point," Mal said. "You tell him," Wash grinned at Kaylee."We can go to earth and back in about a year, given no trouble," Kaylee smiled happily. "Earth?" Inara exclaimed. "Yeah... we have mentioned making a journey....you don't have to go... if we go. I mean if you have clients and stuff," Mal replied. "Ain't that a bit of a risky journey?" Jayne asked. "Yeah... which is why I don't get why these two yokels decide to tell me this now..." Mal said looking at Wash and Kaylee."Oh, but it's so exiting!" Kaylee smiled."What's to be had on earth? Its nothing there but a big pile of nothing," Jayne asked. "There's still stuff there," Mal said before turning back to Wash."See.. we were looking at the route people used to get out here. With their tech they had to use planetary grav-fields to aid propulsion. See if we go straight, cut out the middle man so to speak. We will halve the distance. And we have a ship with a hundred times the speed of the original arks," Wash explained. "So why ain't other ships doing it?" Mal asked. "Coz everybody has been taught to believe that its all a big pile of nothing," Lou said receiving a playful tug of her braid.

After everybody had gone, Mal and Inara had a discussion."I don't see why you're making a fuss about this. I told you. We are strapped for cash. There is no way we can do it," Mal said."It would have been nice to be told," Inara said."And you would have if it ever came to be. But it's not. So it's not a problem," Mal told her."But it's a good idea. I know lots of people who would buy whatever you bring back," Inara said. "We might not bring a single thing back on account of being all dead in space," Mal muttered."It would still be profitable if we went," Inara said. "Well. It would take you away from your work so I don't expect you would find it in your interest to go with us anyway," Mal replied. "In case you haven't already noticed, Mal. I haven't taken a client for months," she snapped."And why is that? You not happy with the quality of gentlemen where we set down? You know we have to go where there's money," Mal asked. "I am taking a sabatical. I was going to ask you to set me off at the temple if we go that way," Inara said. "So you really are planning on leaving. For real?" Mal asked. "I think we both know it is time for a change," Inara said. Mal stared at her."Besides. If you are serious about this trip to earth, I have money saved up and I am sure I have contacts who can help finance it. If you weren't so stubborn Mal...." Inara said. "I'm not going to risk my crew. It's not a safe journey," Mal said before leaving for the bridge.